United States Institute for Peace and the International Republican Institute have predicted that there would be violence in Lagos, Rivers, Anambra, Adamawa, Ekiti, Plateau, Kano and Kaduna States during the 2019 general elections.
This prediction was made in a report co-sponsored by Fund for Peace, Middle East and Africa Centre and other international organisations.
It states that social and economic inequalities, ethnic and religious divisions, and corruption contributed to the risks of electoral violence in the country.
This special report on ‘Preventing Electoral Violence in Nigeria,’ was presented in Abuja on Thursday by the Institute’s Programme Director, Fund For Peace, Patricia Taft.
“They clearly show the limitations of pursuing a single strategy to mitigate electoral violence and argue for adaption and innovation, on a state-by-state basis,” the report stated.
The report further revealed that public confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for credible elections was low, stating that the electoral umpire “would benefit a lot from a transparent result management and staffing reforms.”
It suggested that successful state-level initiatives in Plateau State would reduce religious intolerance.
Taft added that “the findings showed that pre- and post-election conflicts were usually orchestrated, and not spontaneous as they appeared.”
She said, “the active involvement of the civil society and Non-Governmental Organisations as peace brokers should be explored to build trust in the polity”.
The agencies unanimously called for “greater attention to be paid to preventing violence at the local level, and strong will from political parties to consciously prevent violence.”